Orestes
Euripides
Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. II. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1891.
- All the citizens, so that I may die; it is shortly told.
- Poor wretch! you have arrived at the extremity of woe.
- In you I have hopes of escape from my troubles. But since you have come with good fortune,
- share with your friends, who are wretched, your prosperity; do not hold aside that goodness for yourself alone; but partake of troubles in your turn, and so pay back my father’s kindness to those who have a claim on you. For such friends as desert us in adversity
- are friends in name but not in deed.
- And here is Tyndareus, the Spartan, struggling with aged step, clad in black robes, with his hair cut short in mourning for his daughter.
- Menelaus, I am ruined. See, Tyndareus
- approaches us, the man of all others I most shrink from facing, because of the deed I have done. For he nursed me when I was small, and lavished on me many a fond caress, carrying me about in his arms as the son of Agamemnon; and so did Leda;
- for they both honored me no less than the Dioscuri.
- Ah me! my wretched heart and soul, it was a sorry return I made them! What darkness can I find for my face? What cloud can I spread before me in my efforts to escape the old man’s eye?
- Where, where may I see Menelaus, my daughter’s husband? For as I was pouring libations on Clytemnestra’s grave I heard that he had come to Nauplia with his wife, safe home again after many years. Lead me to him; for I want to approach him
- and clasp his hand, as a friend whom at last I see again.
- Hail, old man, rival of Zeus for a bride!
- All hail to you, Menelaus, my kinsman!
- Catching sight of Orestes. Ah! What an evil it is to be ignorant of the future! There is that matricide before the house, a viper darting venomous flashes from his eyes, whom I loathe.
- Menelaus, are you speaking to that godless wretch?
- And why not? He is the son of one whom I loved.
- This is his son, this creature here?
- Yes, his son; if he is in misfortune, he ought to be honored.
- You have been so long among barbarians that you have become one of them.